


I Guess You Can Call This a New Year's Kiss

by Whistlesnbells



Category: Happiest Season (2020)
Genre: Adultery, Enemies to Lovers, Experimentation, F/F, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, Party, Sexuality Crisis, Unhappy marriage, anyways yeah theres sex so be warned i suppose, apology, both alison brie and i will DIE on this hill, but this is a sloane/riley fic did you not expect that, kind of, of romantic sorts, ohoho buckle up for some NSFW kids, rileys just along for the ride honestly, shes done bad things but shes not homophobic, slight harper slander, sloane isnt homophobic, tagging this makes me cringe ouch, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:27:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28250148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whistlesnbells/pseuds/Whistlesnbells
Summary: Sloane knows she owes many people an apology, so she starts somewhere.
Relationships: Sloane Caldwell/Riley Johnson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 77





	I Guess You Can Call This a New Year's Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends!! This took SOOO long to write due to finals and such, but I wanted to jump on the happiest season train before it was too late. Feels nice to write for a fandom that isn't dead lmao. Anyways I love the dynamic between Riley and Sloane, there are so many reasons why they work so well together, and it's sad that we only ever see them interact once. They can be Partners in Harper Slander :) Kudos/comments are very tasty. Enjoy!!
> 
> Special thanks to @ediscn for putting up with me while I wrote this

The Caldwell house was always filled to the brim with people, no matter what holiday it was. Even after the... _events_ of their last get together, it couldn’t be overlooked that they were the best hosts in town. It would be a sin to have a new year’s fling anywhere else. 

This particular piece of information hit Sloane like a ton of bricks. 

Since Christmas Eve, her father had made a public statement addressing the incident, revoking his candidacy, and announcing his support for Harper (with her permission). She had thought it might be best to face it as directly as possible, rather than dealing with the various murmurings around town. He didn’t mention Sloane. 

No, it was best to lay low for now. She had sent Eric home with the twins after Christmas, explaining that she needed some time to process and patch things up. In reality, she couldn’t bear to look at his face for longer than a couple of days. Her mind flooded with pictures of the various women he had soiled their marriage with, and, well… She wanted to make herself as small as possible, which was definitely a first. 

Now, she was in her old childhood bedroom, fishing through clothes to wear like a teenage girl. She felt more lost than she ever did in high school. After flipping through some various options, she finally landed on a maroon dress. Nice and classy, but not too bold. Form-fitting, but not too attention-grabbing. Inconspicuous. 

Downstairs, she stood with her back against the wall, swirling a small drink in her hand. Not too much, or people might think she’s gone alcoholic. It wouldn’t be a very far stretch. She watched the crowds as they mingled under the low lights and golden streamers that littered the foyer, searching for anything interesting to keep her mind busy. Jane was rambling on about her book to almost any passersby that would listen. Sloane smiled, knowing how passionate her little sister was about just about anything. She was always just a little bit jealous of Jane, and how free she was. She felt bad, because she knew Jane wasn’t _happy_ , per se, but she never had to deal with the competition or the standards. She could just _be_ . Her eyes began brimming with slight tears. That was the childhood _she_ was supposed to have. She wanted that… 

She felt a hand tap her shoulder, forcing her out of her head and slamming her back into reality. She jumped at the disturbance, until she saw that it was just Riley, Harper’s old friend...er, girlfriend. “Jesus, you scared me.” She almost took an accusatory tone, but Riley dismissed it, knowing it was likely colored by anxiety. 

“Sorry,” She fought herself not to laugh, earning an annoyed frown from Sloane. “I just thought I’d say hi.”

“Oh, okay. Well, if you need anything just ask.”

“Oh, no, I’m okay.”

They stood in silence for a second, watching the party continue around them. 

“So… you trying to melt someone with your eyes?”

Sloane snapped her gaze back towards Riley, both offended and panicked that she noticed her thousand-yard stare.

Riley chuckled a bit and took a short swig of the beer in her hand. “I hear laser vision is _very_ in style these days.”

“ _No._ ” Her tone was icy and dripping with annoyance, but she took a breath and tried again. “No, no, sorry. I’m just, staring into space.” She paused for a second. “There’s never really been much for me to do at these parties…” _Or in this family,_ she desperately wanted to add.

“Yeah. Abby’s kinda busy and talking to Harper is like a damn minefield.”

She scoffed, “Yeah, well you’re talking to the girl who spent her whole life trying to find the mines.” 

Riley sighed heavily. “Yeah. I’m sorry about what happened, by the way. With, well, everything, I guess. I assume that’s why you’re hiding in the corner.”

“No not at all, hiding in corners is just a hobby of mine.” Sloane meant it jokingly, but her tone must have been a smidge sharper than she intended, because she saw Riley flinch a little. 

“Alright, well, I’m gonna,” She weakly gestured over her shoulder with her thumb, visibly disappointed. “Happy New Years.”

Sloane wanted so badly to let her leave, but she knew deep down that Riley was her only chance at having a good (or at least not depressing) time tonight. If she wanted that, she was going to have to attempt to clear the air between them. “Wait, Riley? Can you, uhm. Can we talk?”

Riley stopped in her tracks. Never in the _many_ years she had known the Caldwells had Sloane _asked_ to talk to her. 

“Please?” Sloane’s voice cracked a bit. Riley’s eyes widened with sympathy as she hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Sloane showed her upstairs to her old room.

The two of them sat on the bed in silence for a moment, both fishing for the right words to start the conversation. They were familiar with sitting in silence with each other, from when Harper and Riley were still young. Harper would leave to fetch something, or Riley would come downstairs in the dead of night during a sleepover, leaving the two of them in each other's presence. Sloane was never sharp with Riley. She didn’t go out of her way to be welcoming, not that Riley had expected that, but she was never sharp. They never said anything, or even communicated nonverbally with a smile or nod. They sat there in silence, but it felt safe. It felt comfortable. 

Riley ran her hand along the comforter, noticing the soft blue paisleys that decorated the room. “I like the flowery thing you had going on.” She noted, trying to ease the tension.

“I’m not homophobic.”

Sloane was incredibly stiff, and refused to look anywhere but her feet. Riley had no idea how to respond. “Straight to the point, then. Got it.”

“I know… what it looks like. I know what it sounded like. But it’s not that she was... She was _lying_. And it was still stupid and petty of me to… you know. But... it wasn’t that she was gay.”

More silence. Sloane met Riley’s eyes, then quickly turned away, uncomfortable with the vulnerability.

“I wanted you to know. You can leave if you’d like.”

Riley stood up cautiously, smoothing the part of the bed she’d risen from. She slowly made her way to the doorway, giving herself time to think. She hesitated before leaving the room, opening her mouth to…well, she didn’t exactly know. Thank her for the half-hearted apology? Chide her for her actions? Ask her what this was all about? _Why her?_

_“_ So what about you and Harper?”

Sloane scoffed. “What about us?”

“Did you guys make up?”

“Apparently so.” 

Riley raised an eyebrow. “Apparently?”

“Please don’t tell me that of all people, _you’re_ going to play hero.” 

“I never said that. Why, are you guys still fighting?”

Sloane sighed heavily. “What I did was wrong, but don’t you think for a second that if I had kept my mouth shut, she wouldn’t have run straight to our parents and— Well, she would do anything to keep her spot in the limelight, am I wrong?”

Riley knew she wasn’t. Harper knew how to get what she wanted, and Riley knew better than anyone how willing she was to throw others to the sharks in the process. For Sloane, it was a survival game. Kill or be killed.

Sloane took a long sip of her drink. “I may be a bitch, but she is by no means an angel.”

“You can say that again.”

Out of all the people in the Caldwell family, Riley knew deep down that she had the most in common with Sloane. She knew all too well what it was like, striving for perfection, being top of her class and incredibly successful, only to let one mistake define her as the family disappointment. Not that Riley would describe her being a lesbian as a mistake, but her parents absolutely would. She stood in silence against the door, waiting patiently for Sloane to make the next move, expecting to be dismissed at any moment, but she seemed to have a quizzical look on her face.

“Is something wrong?”

“What’s it like?” 

Riley was shocked, but a part of her was thanking her lucky stars that she now had a reason not to leave. Strange. “What do you mean?”

“You know...what I mean.”

This conversation had befallen Riley many times. Being one of the only gay kids out of the closet in very small high school was like that, people were nosy. But she never would have seen the oldest Caldwell sister as the type for getting into other people’s business. That is, if their business wasn’t directly in the way of hers. Maybe she would be an exception to the type of bullshit that usually followed. Only one way to find out.

“Okay...well… It’s like, soft.” She thought for a second. “And warm. Much gentler than guys. None of that rough, over-aggressive crap.” 

Sloane laughed sharply at that. “They really do try to eat you alive, don’t they?”

“Ugh, yeah. It’s just, I don’t know, better? Because you don’t have to fumble getting to know their body. You know what they like, and what makes them tick just a bit better, and they know _you_ better too. You just fit, and you don’t have to try to be bigger or smaller. It just feels...right.” She took a long swig of the beer she had in hand. She wanted to be able to blame her bright crimson blush on it, but the reality was, she’d been nursing it the whole night. 

Riley waited anxiously to hear Sloane’s reaction, anticipating disgust or detachment. Maybe a comment about her marriage. Nothing came. She had no idea why she needed her approval so badly. Why her pulse was spiking. It was just Sloane. Right? In an attempt to prompt her to respond, Riley brought her eyes back up to meet Sloane’s, only to find Sloane’s eyes trained carefully on her lips. Riley’s heart stopped as she recognized the distinct look of yearning that the older woman wore. Sloane realized that she’d been caught, but she didn’t look away. She was much too lost in thought. 

Riley took a much softer tone. “Do… you want me to show you?”

Sloane’s gaze remained fixed on her lips as she cautiously nodded, her heart racing.

Riley brought her hand to her face, gently cupping her cheek and guiding her in closer. She moved her other hand to the small of her back, and shot her one last look of “Are you sure about this?” before closing the gap between them. Sloane thought, then nodded softly, leaning into Riley’s touch. Riley could feel how rapidly the older woman’s heart was beating. She was vulnerable. She was scared. She brushed a few strands of hair out of Sloane’s face and slowly dragged her thumb across her cheek, silently saying, “It’s okay, I got you.” 

At first, Sloane was limp. Simply along for the ride as Riley laid a soft, chaste kiss on her lips. When Riley pulled away, she sat in shock for a second. She felt Riley’s eyes glued on her, expectantly. She was out of breath, and the world felt like it was spinning. She couldn’t do anything except stare attentively into space, anywhere to avoid looking the woman beside her in the eyes.

“Sloane?”

Well, fine. Time to hike up the granny pants.

“I…uhm...”

Maybe not. Her feeble attempt at forming a sentence melted into a gooey word-puddle before her as she fished for the right thing to say. What _could_ she say? That it was nice? What an understatement. Admitting that it was the best kiss she’s ever had, and it only lasted a second or too? _Terrifying_. Besides, she wasn't… Anyways, she briefly considered resorting to her usual defensive distance, a coldness that would end whatever this… affair… was. No, her earlier stammering put that past the point of believability. And as much as she hated the thought of it, she was desperate not to kill any chance of going further. 

She kept her eyes firmly away from Riley and swallowed hard. “I didn’t know it could feel like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Kissing someone.”

Riley slowly registered the events of the past ten or so minutes, and started to actually feel bad for Sloane. Sloane was the first (and only) of the Caldwell sisters to get married. She knew her marriage was flawed. Anyone with two eyes and a brain could tell that it was for show. But she never thought of how painfully lonely she must have been. How distant _were_ they, for a quick peck on the lips to affect her more than any other kiss she’d ever had?

Still, it was admittedly very hard to get past her actions at the Christmas party. Riley was used to these kinds of happenings in her hometown by now, but something about the contempt that had coated the word _“lesbian”_ as it fell out of Sloane’s mouth. Something about it coming from Sloane in the first place. 

But now that she knew _this_ , she had a whole host of new feelings washing over her at once. Sympathetic for poor Sloane, who was now probably going to have an entirely new life crisis? Check. Ecstatic that a beautiful, definitely straight (?) woman she’d secretly admired since she was fourteen was suddenly interested in her? Check. Terrified because she’s definitely been in this situation before? Oh no. This is a bad idea. She shouldn’t...

Riley pulled away, panic bubbling up inside her. “Listen Sloane… I don’t know if I should get involved with—”

“No, Riley, please!”

In an effort to stop her from leaving, Sloane pulled her hand up to Riley’s cheek, mimicking her actions from earlier. Riley froze, yet again. There must have been some residual fear or doubt in her eyes, because Sloane decided that she needed to go farther, and slowly dragged her hand down her neck and collar bone, leaving a trail of goosebumps along the way. Finally, she stopped at her chest. She could feel Riley’s heart pounding against her hand. If the doctor didn’t know better, she’d think it was gonna jump out of her chest. Sloane looked up into Riley’s eyes and raised her eyebrows, but not in her usual “I know I have the upper hand” way. No, this was different. This was _pleading._

Fuck it. Now or never.

Riley dove into a passionate kiss with the other woman, grasping her hand and pulling it through her hair to the back of her head. She desperately pulled her jacket off, casting it to the floor. Sloane quickly reciprocated the kiss, taking advantage of her new placement by pulling Riley in for more friction. Riley gently pushed Sloane into a horizontal position on the bed, one of her knees taking up residence between her legs. Seeing her sprawled out like this was something Riley took great pride in. Not just anybody got to see Sloane Caldwell as vulnerable as she was right then. If Riley’s intuitions were right, not even her husband. She reveled in the idea that this secret side of her was hers, and _only_ hers. And she was so beautiful this way.

Sloane brought her out of her thoughts by grinding slowly against her knee, letting a soft, breathy moan escape her lips. She wanted more, and Riley was up to the challenge. Riley slowly parted her lips against Sloane’s, slipping her tongue in. While their mouths were getting acquainted, Sloane’s hips were softly bucking up into Riley’s, desperate for more contact. Riley responded by bringing her knee up into Sloane, slowly rolling it over her sensitive area. She was especially pleased by the stronger moan she had earned from that. 

Whoops. Riley stopped for a minute, causing Sloane’s brow to furrow. There was still a party going on downstairs. That’s important.

“What’s wrong?”

Riley, not wanting to break the mood for too long, silenced Sloane by placing a finger to her lips.

She nodded towards the door, which was very much still ajar, and whispered, “We don’t want them to know, do we?”

Sloane was blushing like crazy, but in a daze, she nodded. Riley rose, and closed the door, then returned to the position they were in. However, she took a second. She wanted to capture this moment and remember it forever. She studied Sloane’s features like they were her old notes from med school. She memorized every smudge of makeup, every hair out of place. 

“What?” Sloane was out of breath, and therefore barely audible. She still managed to take a tone of annoyance, which was a bold choice, considering the position she was in. 

Riley smirked. “Nothing.” She dove back into a deep kiss with the other woman, grinding deep into her hips. Her hand wandered up from Sloane’s sides, landing on her breasts. She glanced down at it, then made eye contact with Sloane, raising her eyebrow as if to ask for permission. Sloane nodded furiously, she _needed_ this. Riley reached around Sloane’s back, lifting her slightly and pulling down the zipper of her dress in one swift move. She brought down the torso of the dress, revealing her breasts. Sloane made quick work of removing the rest of it, leaving her just in her underwear. Riley slowly pulled away from Sloane’s lips and laid a kiss on her jaw. She started kissing her way down her neck, sucking on the sensitive skin _just_ slightly, then her collarbone, chest, and finally reached her breasts. She took one in her mouth, dragging her tongue slowly in a circle around her nipple. Sloane’s breath hitched as she bit back a moan. Riley took that as her cue to begin sucking. Sloane’s eyes went wide, and she suddenly realized how hard it was going to be to keep quiet. She laced her fingers through Riley’s hair, holding the back of her head close to her. The worst thing that could possibly happen to her in that moment, in her opinion, was Riley moving away. 

Riley continued to slowly suck on Sloane’s breast while she dipped her other hand under the band of Sloane’s underwear. As she felt between her legs, she realized that the woman was dripping wet with anticipation. She brought two fingers to her clit and started lightly rubbing in circles. The light touch drove Sloane _insane_ . She attempted to grind into Riley’s hand, but that only made her pull away for a second or two. She was playing games, which normally, Sloane didn’t appreciate. She was always very direct and to the point. But what the hell, she was learning a _lot_ of new things about herself, so did any of this _really_ count?

Once Sloane stopped fighting her and relaxed into her hand, Riley smiled. “There’s a good girl,” she purred, then added a bit more speed and pressure. Sloane gripped the fabric of Riley’s shirt and twisted it in her fists. Riley’s touch sent mini jolts of lightning bursting throughout her, and she wanted so much more. Riley moved her mouth away from Sloane’s breast, which earned her a needy whine. Sloane slowly realized what she was doing as she kissed her way down her stomach and hips, gently guiding her legs further apart. She wanted to egg her on. She wanted to tell her how badly she needed her mouth between her legs, how she was _dying for it._ But she didn’t dare speak. Speaking would make it far too real. 

Riley finally brought her mouth to Sloane’s sex and lightly grazed her already sensitive clit with her tongue. Sloane moaned in appreciation, and Riley smiled against her. She dragged her tongue up and down the soft pink skin, exploring every inch of her. She centered herself on Sloane’s clit ones more, now working in circles, starting to move faster. Sloane’s breath hitched. Riley brought two fingers to her entrance and pushed inside her. Fuck, it felt _amazing._ She began curling her fingers inside her while she kept her tongue busy. Sloane was losing all sense of herself now. Her entire world was Riley. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered in this moment. Her moans grew louder and more desperate by the second, and she held her hand to Riley’s head, to silently say “ _more, faster.”_

Riley must have gotten the message, because she started thrusting her fingers in and out of Sloane faster and faster. 

“ _Fuck_ … please… I’m…” Sloane fought to push the words out, “I’m so close…”

At that, Riley picked up the pace one last time, each thrust of her fingers earning her a gasp of pleasure from Sloane. She stopped her tongue motion and started sucking on her clit. _Hard._ A loud, desperate moan escaped Sloane’s lips. She was no longer in control of her body, Riley was. Riley lost herself in her motions, working as hard and fast as her body would allow. Sloane took one last look at Riley, beautiful Riley, who she still couldn’t believe she was allowing to touch her like this, whose touch she couldn’t believe made her feel _this good_ , and finally came undone. A mess of desperate gasping and moaning, she relaxed back into the pillow as she took a step back into reality. 

Riley eased her down before coming up for air and reaching for a tissue to clean herself off. Once she had rid herself of Sloane’s, er, _mess_ , Riley took her place beside her and sighed heavily. Sloane laid there, completely still. She simply stared at the ceiling and said nothing at all. Riley turned on her side to face the other woman, starting to worry. 

“You okay?”

Sloane turned to meet Riley, making eye contact but swiftly forcing her eyes shut, trying so incredibly hard to ignore the gravity of the situation at hand. She was trying to convince herself that it wasn’t real. A tear escaped down her cheek, which turned to two, which turned to heavy sobs.

Riley took Sloane in her arms, holding her to her chest and rubbing soft circles on her back. Sloane was letting decades of pent up emotion unfurl, finally forced to face what she had been running from. All Riley could do was be there.

“We’ll figure it out,” She whispered into the crook of Sloane’s neck, “We’ll figure it out.”


End file.
